Title: Types of four wheel drive vehicle and their basic characteristics

Authors: H. Koga

Addresses: Engineer, Drive Train Design Department, Isuzu Motors Ltd., Fujisawa-shi, Japan

Abstract: In this paper formulae for front and rear wheel torque are introduced for showing the tractional characteristics of four wheel drive vehicles. A simple traction model is used for each of the various types of four wheel drives including the rigidly connected type, the centre differential type, the centre differential plus viscous clutch type, the viscous transfer type, the split torque type, and the over-running clutch type. This paper describes the characteristics of each type by comparison of the torque ratio between the front and rear wheels obtained from calculations using the formulae. Calculations are made for two different vehicle speeds (20 km/h and 100 km/h), under two different road conditions (dry pavement and snow-covered road), and also under tight-cornering condition.

Keywords: differential; drive train; four wheel drive; 4WD vehicles; torque; traction; viscous clutch; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1988.061495

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1988 Vol.9 No.6, pp.601 - 615

Published online: 26 May 2014 *

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